


Harry Styles Plays with Kittens While Answering Questions

by SadaVeniren



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkwardness, Cat/Human Hybrids, Famous Harry, Famous Louis Tomlinson, Hybrid Harry, Hybrid Louis, Love Confessions, M/M, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-22 17:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21305669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadaVeniren/pseuds/SadaVeniren
Summary: “Are those thekittens? Can I see them now or do we need to wait for me to be on camera?”“You can see them beforehand. We have them in a little playpen,” Louis stepped in, finding his voice somehow.He lost it as soon as Harry looked at him and it made Louis swallow. “That would be great yeah. Louis, right?”Louis nodded and took Harry’s hand to shake it. His ears ducked just a bit, because he was so nervous and he knew he shouldn’t be. There was nothing truly different about Harry than any of the other celebrities Louis had met with, but then therewasone hundred percent a difference. Harry was a cat hybrid like Louis and that… that meant a lot. For Louis personally.aka Louis runs a Youtube channel and Harry is his celebrity guest
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 36
Kudos: 488
Collections: 1D Hybrid Fic Fest





	Harry Styles Plays with Kittens While Answering Questions

**Author's Note:**

> mO_____Om
> 
> Please enjoy the fluff fest that is this fic. I'll include the original prompt I had at the bottom since it has essentially the whole plot it in!!

The studio lights were bright. Louis looked around, watching as his crew finished setting up the lights. Sometimes he couldn’t believe he actually had a crew and a studio. Okay sure, his crew was made up of three people, one of which was his younger sister, but _still_. He’d come a long way from filming off his laptop in his room and working two other shitty retail jobs at a time. Now he had an honest to god work schedule that he kept, with new videos coming out twice a week. When he wasn’t filming he was helping Calvin edit, or setting up the next set of guests. And wasn’t that always something – that he had guests he had to schedule and plan videos around?

Today was a guest video day – a _celebrity_ guest video day. One of his more regular segments was “Hybrid Celebs answer questions while playing with X”. It was usually easy promo to coordinate because the majority of hybrids who became celebrities were cats or dogs, which meant Louis could partner up with a local shelter to get a hold of a few kittens or puppies. There were however some more memorable ones: his first “Hybrid Celebs answer questions” interview had been with a DJ friend of his – Steve – who was a bear hybrid. The entire segment had come about while Louis interviewed him why Steve played with a koala at the zoo, and it had spawned a series that Louis had not anticipated. But wholesome hybrid representation was something that Louis thrived to create and if it allowed other hybrid celebrities a chance to share his platform to promote themselves to a wider audience then it all worked out.

His tail twitched as he heard the door to the studio open and his right ear turned slightly towards the soft mews that followed. Emily was here then. He smiled and turned towards the shelter worker, eyes immediately going to the six travel crates she was wheeling in. It took all his will power not to start cooing at the kittens, and instead greet Emily first. “Hello, hello. Good to see you again.”

“The pleasure’s always mine. They’ll hopefully be playful by the time we get them out,” she said as she looked at the crates with Louis.

He knelt down and put one finger in the hole of the crate, grabbing the attention of the ginger striped kitten inside. The kitten came up and sniffed at Louis’ fingers before biting at it. Louis smiled moving his finger around for the kitten to play with and only wincing a little whenever he got caught by one of their teeth. “And what’s your name?”

“This one is Tiger. We have Shadow, Storm, Ox, Beto, and Lady as well. And who will they be playing with today?” Emily asked, her voice just sly enough to make it sound like she wasn’t fishing for information.

Louis was used to the routine. “Some bloke, I don’t really know.” He glanced at her and smiled. She was a full blood human but that didn’t change the fact that she was nice. He pulled his hand away from the crate and stood up. “He did some song, something something sign of the times. Fake deep, you know?”

Emily’s jaw dropped and she smacked Louis’ shoulder. “Shut up. Your guest is _Harry Styles_?”

“Ah yes, that sounds like his name.” Louis started back towards the set, wanting to take a look through the camera before Harry got here. Which should have been any moment. They were due to start filming in about a half hour.

Despite his teasing with Emily Louis was a big fan of Harry Styles. (Obviously, it’s why he invited him onto the show) Harry Styles was… a different sort of celebrity. He’d gotten his start on X-Factor, and was one of their first hybrid competitors who had an honest shot at winning. He hadn’t won of course, the general public would never vote for a hybrid regardless of how talented they were, but he had gotten a record deal out of it. He’d started off making typical poppy music, but his latest album was a new take on things. He’d started writing more of his own songs and they were absolutely stunning. Louis was going to enjoy asking him questions while he watched him play with kittens.

***

Harry Styles arrived exactly on time, which wasn’t unpleasant for Louis in the slightest. It was actually greatly appreciated considering that most celebrities seemed to operate on their own schedule and Louis had learned to build in extra padding in his mental schedule for that exact reason. Having someone show up on time, and be _ready_ was wonderful and Louis was all ready to tell Harry this as he approached him and then well--

Listen it wasn’t like Louis was regularly star struck but Harry Styles was a very beautiful hybrid. His brown hair curled around his jaw, and the curls helped hide the two brown cat ears on top of his head. His eyes were a beautiful shade of green and seeing them in person only made it more obvious just how beautiful and rare the color was.

He was tall and lean, proving that hybrids of the same breed came in many different sizes. Louis could not be blamed for staring and completely losing his ability to be the charming host he knew he could be.

Luckily his sister was there to take over for him, as she gave him a weird look.

“Welcome! Thanks for coming,” she said, holding her hand out to shake Harry’s.

“Of course!” Harry’s voice was just as slow and deep as Louis heard on the radio, but the inflection and character that bled through was new. Harry was known for being rather deadpan with his delivery, especially in more recent years. When he’d been younger obviously he was more rambunctious, but with age came maturity no doubt. Louis watched as one of Harry’s ears twitched in the direction of the kittens and a moment later he let his eyes slide over to them, and away from Lottie. “Are those the _kittens_? Can I see them now or do we need to wait for me to be on camera?”

“You can see them beforehand. We have them in a little playpen,” Louis stepped in, finding his voice somehow.

He lost it as soon as Harry looked at him and it made Louis swallow. “That would be great yeah. Louis, right?”

Louis nodded and took Harry’s hand to shake it. His ears ducked just a bit, because he was so nervous and he knew he shouldn’t be. There was nothing truly different about Harry than any of the other celebrities Louis had met with, but then there _was_ one hundred percent a difference. Harry was a cat hybrid like Louis and that… that meant a lot. For Louis personally.

“Here, I’ll let you see the kittens,” Louis said, dropping Harry’s hand.

He smiled then, causing dimples to creep into his cheeks. Louis turned away before he could respond, and he felt the way Harry followed him towards the playpen.

“They’re precious,” Harry whispered, as he stopped right at Louis’ side, looking at the six kittens rolling around and playing with each other.

Well, not all of them were playing, but they were all awake and walking around.

“I have been looking forward to this interview the most.” Harry’s voice was low, quiet, when he said that, like it was a secret.

Louis’ head whipped towards him. “What? Really?”

Harry nodded. “From the moment Jeff said he’d booked it. I mean, I’d asked him if it was possible to include it in my rotation, and he’d said he’d see what he could do because it’s not like this is the only thing you do, but yeah. I just really wanted to play with the kittens.”

Louis didn’t know what to say in response to that. His mouth was dry and his tongue felt heavy in his mouth. “Well I’m completely honored.”

_fuck_ that was not what he wanted to say at all.

Harry only beamed at him though and that made Louis feel a bit better. He still wanted to curl up and hide behind his tail but he couldn’t do that.

Speaking of tails his was twitching like crazy and he wished he’d tucked it into his joggers today because he kept having to pull it away from where it was trying to lash against Harry.

Stupid tail.

“Tommo, we’re all set up,” Calvin said as he came over to pick up the kittens. His face crinkled up in delight because even though he was a dog hybrid kittens still worked their way into his heart.

Harry took a step away from him. “Where should I go?”

“Just over by the blue screen. Lottie and Oli can direct you about getting into position. Once you’re in position we’ll start filming and dump these little ones on you,” Calvin said, distracted as he tried to corral six kittens into his arms.

“Here, just follow me,” Louis said.

Set up was always the same for these segments and Louis hoped that once he was sitting in the chair behind the camera he’d settle into the normal routine. He had his tablet with the questions pulled up and Oli was starting the camera up. It didn’t take long to get the kittens onto the set and into Harry’s area.

Louis couldn’t take his eyes off of Harry as he was surrounded by the six kittens. Usually he was able to banter with the person he was interviewing but today he could only stare. Harry lifted up Beto and gave him a kiss on the nose.

Lottie flicked him in the ear and gestured at him to start. Louis shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “Alright. Please tell us all about your new single _Lights Up_.”

“Well, it’s a song, that I wrote,” Harry said before he trailed off as Shadow made his way up Harry’s bicep. “Hello there. You’re an adventurous one aren’t you?” Louis could tell his focus was no longer on the question as he lifted Shadow up and pulled a funny face at him. Shadow _mewed_ back at him.

This was usually the part where Louis refocused the person he was interviewing, drawing their attention away from the animals, but Harry just looked _so cute_ making faces at Shadow.

Lottie flicked his ear again and Louis hissed, turning to look at her. She gestured again at Harry. “Get him back on track.” Her own tail was twitching from where she’d wrapped it around her waist.

“Right, so it’s a song you wrote?” Louis said.

Harry looked up from where he’d been watching Beto roll with Tiger. “What? Oh yes. I wrote the song as kind of, a pick me up I guess. To be like a reflection of the last couple years of being in the spotlight.” He reached down and let his hand join Beto and Tiger, distracting them a bit. Louis’ eyes fell on his tail, which Ox was currently trying to pounce on. “But I also want it to speak to the fans - or anyone really. I like it when people can interpret songs as they see fit. You know what I mean?”

“No I don’t, explain it to me,” Louis said before he could stop himself.

Harry looked up from the kittens at him and his smile was challenging. “Teasing me isn’t fair. It’s really hard to think with these cuties demanding all my attention.” He picked up Shadow and made him give a little wave.

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Louis said, swallowing. He managed to find his rhythm asking questions to Harry, only getting distracted a few times more watching Harry. 

Really Harry was the big problem - constantly stopping to talk to the kittens. At one point in the interview he was just lying on his back, letting Beto and Ox climb over his chest and face.

“You can just leave me here to die,” Harry said. “I’m fine.”

Louis could only shake his head in disbelief. This man was absolutely unreal.

***

Somehow they got through all of the questions Louis had prepared, and it only took a little over twenty minutes. Definitely not the longest interview he’d ever done but not the short five to seven minutes the video would end up being. Harry even helped them collect the kittens and get them back in their crates so Emily could bring the kittens back to the shelter.

Louis watched as Harry signed a few things for the shelter, and Emily personally, while his manager Jeff stood by, checking his phone. No doubt Harry would need to be whisked off any moment for his next scheduled interview. Harry gave Emily a hug, meowed at the kittens one last time, before he stood up and looked around. His eyes landed on Louis and he made his way over to him.

Louis froze, ears and tail alert, waiting to see what would happen.

“Thanks for a great interview,” Harry said.

Of course, just a simple thanks. Naturally. It was what a lot of celebrities did afterwards. Louis let out a breath. “Sorry it wasn’t more in depth but you know.” He gave a half shrug.

“Well the main goal is to get the kittens adopted right? Or maybe that and have a bit of fun?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Sometimes I’ve had people come in and they are really stand-offish with the animals. Which brings its own fun of course but well-“

“So it’s not a problem that I just …. was really distracted? And like, the laying down?”

“No of course not! Seriously you were absolutely fine. And it was an honor to get to interview you.”

“An honor?”

Louis heard the way he was gently teasing and he couldn’t stop the soft smile that crept up on his face. “You know what I mean.”

Harry returned the smile. “No I don’t. Explain it to me.”

“Hey, no fair using my words against me you know.” Louis pushed his hand against Harry’s chest gently.

Harry caught his wrist with his hand and gave it a quick squeeze before dropping it. “Can you use your words?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “You’ve just done a lot for hybrid representation. Especially cat representation. A lot of people look at us one way, and you’ve pushed back against a lot of that.” He rubbed the back of his neck and he could feel his tail swishing behind him. “You let your boundaries stay up and you call our people when they cross them. It’s super important for other hybrids - but especially cat hybrids - to see that. To see someone saying _no_ to our ears or tails getting pet. Cause that can be hard.”

Harry’s face had gotten softer the more he talked and he reached for Louis’s wrist again, wrapping his hand around it. “Thanks, Louis. It means a lot to hear that from someone.”

“Well it means just as much to have you do it.”

Louis saw Jeff waving out the corner of his eyes and Harry turned. “Looks like I’m getting called. Do you know when the video will be up?”

“Editing permitting it’ll be up by the end of the week! I’ll send you the link if you’d like? We’ll tag you on twitter and everything but I don’t know if you check that yourself.”

“Yeah, send me the link, please.” Harry gave him one last smile before he walked to Jeff.

Louis let out a loud breath. Well at least that was over with.

“Did you survive?” Oli asked.

Louis jumped, even though it just made Oli grin. Fucking fox hybrids. Not only were they soulless gingers they were slinkier than cats. He glared at him. “Of course I survived. I’m a _professional_. I do this for a living.”

“Yeah but you don’t do this with _Harry Styles_.”

There were a lot of perks with working with his friends. The fact that they knew him was not always one of them.

“Was he everything you ever wanted?” Calvin asked, and what was this, bother Louis hour? They’d just finished filming! They should be moving on, breaking down the set and moving onto the next part of their days! Not standing around bothering Louis.

“You sure sucked at interviewing him,” Lottie said, joining the conversation and officially making it a party.

Louis bristled, and he felt his tail fluff up in irritation. “Yes okay! Yes he was absolutely everything I wanted him to be, and more. And watching him play with the kittens stirred my heart in ways I wasn’t expecting, okay?”

“Imaging him with your kittens?” Calvin asked, because he was an _asshole_.

“Of course! And fuck he was perfect okay! Perfect and lovely and I finally got to meet him and it’ll probably only be this once but Christ it was everything. Are you assholes happy?”

There was a cough behind him and Louis froze.

_Fuck_.

He wasn’t going to turn around. He didn’t need to, not when Oli, Calvin, and Lottie were all looking wide-eyed at the person behind him.

“Forgot my phone…” Harry’s deep voice said. Because of course it was Harry. Who else could it be?

The other three scampered off because they were traitors and Louis was going to fire them all. He didn’t turn around, just let his ear swivel as Harry moved to collect his phone from near the now empty playpen. Maybe if he stood really still Harry wouldn’t remember he was there.

“So,” Harry said.

“Can we just… forget that whole thing just happened?” Louis asked. “I promise I’m just- I mean I’m a complete disaster but you’ve got no concerns about me doing anything or whatever it being weird and just - we can forget.”

“Oh,” Harry sounded almost… disappointed and Louis had no idea what to do with that.

His tail twitched and he just wanted Harry to leave so he could die in peace.

“I’d kind of hoped that I was being a bit more obvious.”

“Obvious?” Louis repeated. “Obvious about what?” He was finally looking at Harry, completely out of his depths.

Harry rubbed his hand through his hair, tugging on his ear just a bit. Probably nerves. “Liking you?”

“What? When were you obvious about that?” Louis asked. “You weren’t obvious at all!”

“I told you I’d been looking forward to this though,” Harry said, and he was frowning. There were no dimples when he was frowning and Louis didn’t like that.

“Yeah because of the _kittens_ not because of me!” Louis knew he was probably about ready to throw some crazy shapes but he couldn’t help it. This was coming out of left field for him. “I didn’t even know you knew who I was!”

“I watch YouTube you know. You have a lot of followers. It makes sense I’d watch you.”

Louis felt like he was about to explode. “No! It doesn’t! Why would you want to watch my videos?”

“Because you promote positive hybrid content and you’re funny.”

“I’m not funny!” Louis paused as he realized he’d only said that to argue with Harry because he was in the middle of a meltdown. “Okay no, I’m hilarious but _you_ shouldn’t find me funny! Why do you find me funny?”

“Because you are, you know this isn’t exactly how I was expecting this to go.” Harry’s voice was picking up speed. It must be the nerves.

“What did you dream about this or something?” Louis was definitely panicking. “I told you to forget it!”

“I’m just confused because you…. I mean you just cause said you liked me? And now you’re acting like you don’t?”

“I’m having a breakdown because the guy I have a crush on just found out yes, this is how this tends to go.” Louis squeezed his eyes shut and when he opened them again Harry was smiling at him. Why was he smiling? What right did he have to smile?

“How about we start over again?”

Louis wanted to whine. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Harry ignored him. “Hi, I’m Harry.” He stuck out his hand.

Louis stared at it. Not sure what he should do. Harry waited though, patient as ever until Louis finally reached out and shook his hand. “Hi. I’m Louis?”

He had no clue what he was supposed to do.

“Hi, Louis. I’m a big fan of your channel. I’ve been watching it for a few years now. My favorite segment is when you interview other hybrids while they play with animals. Watching Taylor Swift hiss at another snake was one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever seen and the Tik Toks that have come out of it are saved on my phone for when I get overwhelmed or sad.” He arched his eyebrows in meaning except Louis had no idea what that meaning was.

Louis swallowed and took a guess though. “Thanks, Harry. That’s… it means a lot. That you like the channel so much. I- fuck I’ve been a fan of yours since you came about pretty much. I think you’ve only gotten better and better each album you release and it’s so great to follow your career. When I managed to book you on the show I couldn’t believe it because like - wow you’re amazing and why would you even care to do something as simple as playing with kittens for a youtube channel?”

“Because of you.”

And didn’t that just tug at Louis. He felt himself blush. His tail was swinging back and forth, nerves personified. “Are you doing anything for dinner? I have this episode to edit so I’ll be ordering in but you could… join me?”

He checked on Harry and it looked like he was practically vibrating in joy. His ears perked up and happy, his whole body shaking. “I’d love that, Louis. Do I just come back here or?”

“Yeah, upstairs I do all my editing.”

“Great,” Harry breathed out. “Can I bring Beto?”

Louis blinked. “What?”

“Beto! I asked Emily if I could adopt him and she said yes. I have to run by the shelter to fill out paperwork but he’ll be mine at the end of the day.”

Louis blinked again. “You adopted one of the cats.”

“I did! He was just too loveable not to want. I had to stop myself from adopting them all.” Louis felt absolutely floored. All he could do was nod, because of course it was okay for Harry to bring Beto. Harry continued to beam at him for another moment before he leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to Louis’ cheek. “I’ll see you in a couple hours for dinner! Have a good day!”

Louis floundered. “Wait! What do you want to eat?”

“Whatever is fine! Bye, Louis!”

Well… fuck. Louis rubbed his hand over his face in disbelief.

“Did you score a date?” Calvin called from across the studio.

Louis didn’t even have the heart to flip him off, and instead he just retreated upstairs so he could begin transferring the footage to his computer.

***

The video went up three days later. Lottie tweeted out the link from their twitter, tagging Harry’s account, where it immediately got retweeted. Louis sent the link to Harry directly though, because that was a thing. Having Harry’s personal number that is.

_Hope you like it!_ Louis sent along with it.

A moment later a Facetime call was coming in from Harry. Louis smiled as he accepted it, Beto’s face taking up the camera.

“Hello, Beto,” Louis said.

Beto meowed at him and Louis couldn’t stop himself from meowing back, grinning.

“Lou,” Harry drew out his name as he tipped the camera up. “I’m so excited for the video. Did you include me getting stepped on?”

“Of course I did. You saw the rough cut of the episode! I didn’t make too many changes. Just did color correcting and audio. It starts off with you saying _leave me here to die_.”

“I just want to be sure that I have been properly represented.”

Louis laughed. “Of course I made sure to properly represent you.”

“How long do you think I should wait before posting about Beto? I was thinking ten minutes after the video goes live? Or should I wait until there’s so many hits. I don’t want to give away all the secrets yet.”

“You can do it now if you want. I really don’t think it counts as a spoiler.”

Harry pursed his lips in thought. “I’ll wait til you come over. You can help me write the post.”

Louis laughed. “Me come over? What makes you think I’m coming over?”

“Because I’m making you dinner of course,” Harry said with a smile. “Seven okay?”

Louis’ heart fluttered and his tail thumped happily against his seat. “Yeah. Seven’s perfect.”

“Great! I’ll see you then!”

Louis hung up, but his smile didn’t leave his face for the rest of the day.

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt: 49. Person A is an on-air interviewer for a popular YouTube music show. When Person B, a famous musician, is booked for the show, Person A is nervous and excited to be interviewing them as they have a massive crush. After the interview finishes and Person B leaves, Person A gushes about his crush to the production assistant without realizing the camera is still hot and they're broadcasting live. (Up to you who is the hybrid, or if both are hybrids.)
> 
> If you enjoyed this feel free to leave kudos, a comment, or [reblog the tumblr post](https://sadaveniren.tumblr.com/post/188998756706/harry-styles-plays-with-kittens-while-answering)!!


End file.
